All News articles – Page 1313
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News
Jackson reforms: part two
The new funding arrangements from April fundamentally change the civil litigation landscape. Only some of these result from the Jackson costs report. Lord Justice Jackson did not recommend the serious cutbacks in legal aid enacted in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012 and S.I. 2013 ...
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News
Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, May 1953The blind solicitor: Some of his problems and the means whereby they may be solved, by ‘Aveugle’ It is a fact that may surprise some, though by no means all, members of the profession that several solicitors practising in this country ...
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News
Minding our language
We should endeavour to uphold the highest standards of professional integrity expected of a solicitor and officer of the court, and to make the best interests of clients central to our practice of the law.
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Lawyers need to ‘network widely’
Corporate counsel who cannot show ‘cultural awareness and affinity’ will fall behind in the competition for senior in-house roles, a leading headhunter has warned. Nicholas Hedley of search consultancy Hedley May told the Law Society’s third annual in-house conference that ‘it is not enough to ...
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NewsMy legal life: Sarah Webb
My uncle, a Swansea solicitor, gave me my first job in the law as his secretary. I did law as a non-graduate with long articles, starting off doing criminal work in Shepherds Bush.
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Pre-emption rebuke from Lords
Peers have warned the government to stop relying on a 1945 memorandum to give legal justification for acting in ways that pre-empt parliament. In a report critical of the current government’s behaviour, the House of Lords Constitution Committee says the so-called ‘Ram doctrine’ is ‘misleading ...
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News
Malaysian lawyers denied access to clients
Malaysian lawyers have sustained serious injuries at the hands of police, suffered assaults and intimidation, and are routinely denied access to detained clients, an investigation has found. Their representative body is also under threat, with a government minister planning an alternative to the Bar Council of ...
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News
Private equity spurns law firm advances
Law firms will continue to be unattractive to private equity investors until they improve how they present their financial situation and partners invest their own cash, leading investors said yesterday. John Llewellyn-Lloyd, head of professional services at investment bank Espirito Santo, said external investment was the ...
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News
Rights-forfeit advice
Employees are to be allowed to accept shares in their employer’s business in exchange for surrendering employment rights, following a House of Lords agreement last week. The Lords, which had rejected the plan on two separate occasions, accepted government concessions, including the need for employees to ...
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News
Society endorses ‘a la carte’ advice – but warns of risks
Family lawyers offering ‘pay as you go’ legal services are warned of the risks they carry and how to avoid them in a practice note published today by the Law Society. The note has been published to assist solicitors seeking to offer a more affordable service ...
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News
Society urges super-regulator to delay advocacy scheme
The Law Society’s chief executive has urged super-regulator the Legal Services Board to delay implementation of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), in recognition of the ‘profound shifts and uncertainties’ afflicting criminal practitioners. Within a year the scheme may be ‘meaningless’ to many firms ...
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‘Mayhem’ threat as Wales votes against QASA
Lawyers could cause ‘mayhem’ to the criminal justice system in protest over the government’s legal aid reforms, the leader of the Wales and Chester circuit has warned after barristers in Wales voted unanimously to boycott the controversial quality assessment scheme. Speaking to the Gazette today, Gregory ...
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News
Stobart to bid for new legal aid contracts
Stobart Group is likely to bid for a contract if the government goes ahead with plans for price-competitive tendering for criminal legal aid, the business confirmed today. Trevor Howarth, group legal director for Stobart Barristers, said the fixed-fee service had been created with changes to ...
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News
Criminal legal aid reforms ‘potentially unlawful’ - Society
The Law Society has called for a complete rethink of the government’s ‘economically unworkable’ and ‘potentially unlawful’ criminal legal aid proposals. In a policy document published online yesterday, the Society said: ‘No amount of tinkering with the system of procurement will solve that fundamental difficulty’ with ...
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News
SRA chief Antony Townsend to step down
Antony Townsend, chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority since its inception, is to step down later this year. In a statement this afternoon, Townsend (pictured) described the pace of change at the regulator as ‘relentless’ and the challenges he has faced as ‘formidable’. ...
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News
Grayling’s prison clampdown is a smokescreen, says association chair
Reforms to prison privileges announced by the justice secretary today have been condemned as ‘cheap shots’ to ‘whip up prejudice’ and create a ‘smokescreen’ to detract from legal aid cuts. The chair of the Association of Prison Lawyers, Andrew Sperling, questioned why Chris Grayling had decided ...
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News
Scrap ‘flawed’ asylum system, says Society
The UK’s asylum process should be scrapped in favour of a ‘new blueprint’ that will reduce delays and ensure greater fairness and accountability in the treatment of asylum-seekers, the Law Society’s immigration law committee told MPs last week. The revised process would address the ‘deep systemic ...
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News
Small-claims threshold decision in autumn, Grant says
A government decision on the limit of the size of claims handled by the small-claims court will not be made until the autumn, justice minister Helen Grant revealed today. Grant (pictured) said the Ministry of Justice’s response to a public consultation, which closed in March, is ...
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Majority will avoid sanctions on compliance
Only a small minority of the 928 people or firms being investigated over compliance officer nominations will face sanctions, the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed last week. Enforcement action is under way against those who either failed to nominate COLPs and COFAs before the deadline or where ...